Eureka! Green finally finds basket

NEWARK, N.J. — Even if Danny Green wanted to, he couldn’t ignore the scope of his shooting futility over the past week.

The hecklers in his own Spurs locker room wouldn’t let him.

“Trust me, I’m fully aware,” Green said. “These guys keep me aware of how long it’s been since I made a jumper. If I didn’t know, they’d make sure I know.”

Officially, it had been seven days between successful field goals for Green, the third-year guard who earned his second career start in Saturday’s 103-89 victory at New Jersey.

It only seemed longer.

Green was 0 for 16 during that span, a mark that rose to 0 for 17 before he swished a 3-pointer from the right arc with 8:25 left in the second quarter at the Prudential Center.

Moments after hitting his first shot of the rodeo road trip, and his first since going 2 for 6 against Oklahoma City a week earlier, Green stepped up and buried another 3-pointer.

Green finished 4 of 8 for 10 points and made 2 of 4 on 3-point tries.

“I was just trying to get that first one,” said Green, who is likely keeping the starting spot warm until Manu Ginobili is up to full strength. “Once you hit one, you have a little rhythm going, you have a little more confidence to take the next one.”

Having erased his shooting slump with a handful of jumpers, Green has another goal to keep the critics in own locker room at bay.

“Now I’m pretty much just working on making layups,” Green said.

Big praise, Little General: For New Jersey coach Avery Johnson, Saturday’s game marked his first against the Spurs since falling to No. 2 on the franchise’s all-time assist chart.

“I love it,” Johnson said. “He’s definitely the best point guard in Spurs history. I couldn’t do half the things he does on the floor.”

Parker finished with five assists Saturday, raising his career total to 4,497.

ABA unis: Count Parker among the fans of the red, white and blue Dallas Chaparrals uniforms the team wore as part of a salute to the ABA.

“It was a fun uniform,” Parker said. “It was cool. Old school.”

R.J. laments Brooklyn move: After spending the first seven seasons of his career in New Jersey, Spurs forward Richard Jefferson had bittersweet feelings about returning to the Garden State.

The Nets will move into the Barclays Center in Brooklyn next season. This was Jefferson’s final trip to New Jersey as an NBA player.

“It’s a business situation,” Jefferson said. “It’s no different than being traded to another team. It’s a business decision, and you have to approach it as such. A new arena, it happens a lot in this league and in sports in general. I wouldn’t take it personally.”

A member of NBA Finals teams in 2001-02 and 2002-03 with the Nets, the second of which lost to the Spurs, Jefferson said he is most disappointed for New Jersey fans, who are losing their team across the Hudson River.

“The fans that were here were very loyal,” Jefferson said. “You have a lot of respect for them.”